Lack of IEP Implementation is Also an Outrage

In a recent Washington Post editorial, the D.C. school system was taken to task for its failure to deliver books to all students, even as late as December 2005.  The editorial described the school system as follows: "it is a warehouse for students and a pretty poor one at that."  The scope of this failure is certainly an outrage, and it is severe enough to get the attention of the mainstream media.

The rest of the story (which the editorial did not address) is that for special education students, such fundamental breakdowns in the system are all too commonplace.

I have had students with learning disabilities in "nice" suburbs who lacked school books well into the year.  Families were told that the books were still "on order," and the teacher was making due with photocopied and quilted-together materials.  I have had students with ADD who had IEPs that required a second set of books, because given the student's challenges, he was not able to reliably bring his school set home.  Nearly 2 weeks into the school year, he did not have the promised set of books and was falling seriously behind in his high school workload.  When the mother called me and I called the special education director, he excused this failure stating that "I need to get permission from each department head before I can get the needed books."  He further explained that "it is not like I can just go to the book closet and open a door and retrieve the books."  I responded that his excuses were outrageous and would not be tolerated in the general education side of the school; it is not a justification that the child has an IEP.  As far as the book closet, I refused to accept such a pathetic excuse, and unfortunately, I had to resort to threats of litigation (not my preferred route of dialogue).  The child got his second set of books within 48 hours of the conversation.  This high school was also in a large Chicago suburb.

I have seen countless instances where related services personnel (OT, PT, SLP, SW) have been on extended medical or maternity leave and no compensatory services were offered to the student.  Parents were not informed of this total lack of services, which in some instances went on for months at a time.  When the noncompliance is discovered, sometimes, there are apologies and offers of compensatory education.  In one instance, the school tried to turn the tables, asking me, "do you mean to tell me that the OT did not have the right to go on maternity leave?  Would you have her leave her newborn baby simply to service your student?" I responded that my objection was not about motherhood and newborns being denied their mothers; rather, it was about this child not receiving promised and needed services to receive a FAPE.  Thereafter, the student received all of the compensatory education to which he was entitled.

The point is that in the general education world, no one would ever justify the lack of books, services, or essential school personnel for months because of medical or maternity leave.  Posing such a proposition would be ridiculous.  However, in the same school, such situations are all too frequent in special education settings.  Rarely does anyone "get it" that this is a problem.  Special education services are for the most vulnerable students.  Their services and supports are not optional and are not discretionary.  Beyond the legalities of IDEA, common sense says that books, teachers and therapists are essential.  Without them, schools simply act as "a warehouse for students".  We should have equal outrage and public recognition for the frequent small-scale failings of schools, as well as the system-wide ones described in D.C.

Comments

[whomever1]

It's an outrage, but whatareyagonna do? You pressured someone else to get the books one kid needed, but (assuming best practice) the guy who had to get the books had to remove his effort from work he (in his best professional judgement) thought was more productive.
It's the system which is the problem. At our special ed school we were unable to hire a speech and language specialist so every single kid in the school who has a s%l requirement has to have an IOU addendum to his IEP. But it appears there are no such specialists willing to work in downtown Los Angeles.